Being that I am on the announcing staff at the 2015 NHRA Gatornationals this weekend in Gainesville, I thought it appropriate to bring back this incredible video which originated at the same track. This film shows just how dicey things can get for drag racers at the top end of the track. We’re not sure what class this dragster was running in, but we do know that the video shows the car launching, going on the throttle stop and and then making big steam at the top end of the track. We cannot tell if the driver is whomping the throttle while “driving the stripe” at the end of the track or if he is pedaling the car because it is loose. Either way, things go bad in a hurry.
After a couple of modulations of the throttle, you will see the driver make a couple desperate attempts with the butterfly style wheel before the car smashes the wall in the left lane HARD, rolls onto its side and skids in a shower of sparks to a stop. The chassis seems to have “worked” perfectly as the nose of the car is gone and the driver’s area, including the foot well, is intact. The driver scrambles to get out of the destroyed car and does so in a couple of seconds.
There are other videos out there of this car turning laps at right around 200mph, so this crash was a very high speed affair. Kudos to the chassis builder for constructing this very safe car!
Press play and see scary wreckage!
